Commercial Associate

About the role

This position is for a commercially driven operator who will work directly with Molecule's CEO and Commercial leadership to execute on business development and partnership strategy. The hire will own the end to end follow through on active deals and ensure consistent progress across a diverse set of partners. They will manage and grow a portfolio of investor relationships, maintaining regular communication and providing clear, concise updates to the leadership team. The role requires sound commercial judgement when prioritizing opportunities and allocating limited resources. You will coordinate high stakes conversations across multiple time zones and ensure all stakeholders are fully prepared. This position is critical for building the scalable systems that allow Molecule to handle a high volume of partnerships efficiently. You must be comfortable analyzing scientific opportunities to triage their potential and communicating the implications to non scientific leadership.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Own follow through on BD pipeline by tracking active deal workstreams across enterprise, academic, and biotech partnerships, ensuring nothing stalls and surfacing the right opportunities to leadership at the right time.
• Manage and build investor relations by maintaining relationships with 70+ existing investors through regular updates, slide decks, and follow-ups, while driving new investor relationships forward alongside the CEO and Head of Commercial.
• Triage enterprise, pharma, and investor correspondence with sound commercial judgement to determine urgency, ownership, and appropriate next steps.
• Coordinate and prepare for high stakes calls and meetings across time zones, ensuring the Team walks into every conversation fully briefed and aligned.
• Draft and refine investor communications, partnership proposals, and internal updates on behalf of the Commercial Team with clarity and precision.
• Build and maintain a commercial system by creating structure around how BD opportunities are categorised, tracked, and reported internally, effectively designing our own lean CRM.
• Coordinate cross functional deal activity, acting as the connective tissue that aligns multiple teams and stakeholders throughout the lifecycle of complex engagements.
• Analyse the science behind partnerships to evaluate incoming opportunities with sufficient scientific literacy to triage what is worth pursuing and to brief leadership accordingly.
• Jump on calls with partners and investors as a credible representative of Molecule when needed, articulating the value of the platform and deSci vision.
• Support the Head of Commercial in building playbooks and operational rhythms that increase the efficiency and scalability of the commercial function.
• Maintain a rigorous overview of deal status, timelines, and dependencies to proactively identify risks and blockers before they impact outcomes.
• Translate complex technical concepts into business narratives that resonate with investors, partners, and executive stakeholders.
• Identify and qualify new inbound interest from the academic and pharma communities, converting exploratory conversations into structured opportunities.
• Own the preparation of data rooms, term sheets, and background materials required to move partnerships from discussion to execution.

Requirements

• You are commercially hungry, coming from tech sales at a startup, BD at a health tech company, or through self directed commercial skill building alongside academic work, and you understand pipeline, follow up, and what it takes to close.
• You are not typically corporate, preferring environments similar to a biotech startup or having hustled your way through a top programme while seeking real ownership in your work.
• You are organised and relentlessly focused on follow through, closing the gap that often appears in high volume relationship and deal management.
• You are a strong communicator, equally comfortable drafting a board level investor memo and hopping on a call with a lab partner or key opinion leader.
• You thrive in complexity and are energised by managing multiple priorities across deals, relationships, and internal coordination without losing clarity.
• You have global flexibility, ideally willing to spend the first several months in Berlin for onboarding and relationship building with the core team.
• You have a strong attention to detail and the discipline to maintain accurate records, ensuring that critical information about partners and investors is always up to date.
• You are able to quickly develop a deep understanding of Molecule's protocol stack, IP NFT framework, and the broader deSci infrastructure to communicate credibly with technical partners.

Nice to have

• You have a scientific background, ideally a Master's or PhD in life sciences, biotech, chemistry, or a related field, and you can engage credibly with researchers and pharma partners on the substance of their work.
• You are familiar with biotech IP licensing, research collaboration agreements, or venture deal structures and understand the key terms and risks involved.
• You have experience working across US and European markets and navigating international stakeholder relationships with sensitivity to local norms.
• You have an interest in or exposure to decentralised science, web3, or token based funding models and see the potential for new ownership structures in research.
• You have experience building or managing a CRM or deal tracking system and can translate that experience into the lean operational stack Molecule is building.
• You have prior exposure to DAO governance models and understand how community owned infrastructure can align incentives across stakeholders.
• You are comfortable with asynchronous communication tools and distributed team dynamics, having worked in fully remote or hybrid environments before.

Practical notes

• This role requires global flexibility, with an expectation to spend the first several months in Berlin for onboarding and in person relationship building with the core team.
• The engagement is full time, and the hours will be demanding, reflecting the high level of responsibility and the fast moving nature of the business.
• Travel may be required to meet partners, attend conferences, and support community events as the business scales.
• No specific visa sponsorship details are provided, and candidates must ensure they are eligible to work under the terms of their location.
• The role reports directly to the CEO and works in close partnership with the Head of Commercial and the broader leadership team.
• Decision making is designed to be fast, requiring you to operate with a high degree of ownership and judgment.
• Success in this role will be measured by the health of the BD pipeline, the strength of investor relationships, and the quality of execution on partner commitments.